“Uh-huh.”
“I see you’re not impressed. Well, in any case, if you need anything or just want to talk or think I can help with something, come and see me.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Smithe.” I smiled – genuinely – up at her.
“By the way, Dinger, what did you think of your test grade?” she asked as I headed out the door.
“Everyone’s got to get a 97% in their lives sometimes, I suppose.”
She grinned. “Go and get to class, Dinger; you’re going to be late.”
“Hammy!”
I turned around to see Gwen. “Hey, Gwen.” My mood suddenly picked up despite the oppressive nature of the atmosphere today.
“Hi,” Gwen blushed as she came up next to me. “I was hoping to catch you before the game today.”
I smiled. “Are you coming to the game? It’s the last one of the season.”
“No playoffs?” Gwen asked.
“No,” I remarked bitterly. “We didn’t get in. A couple games being canceled damaged our record really bad.”
“I see,” Gwen’s voice was softer now. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. College scouts don’t usually pay attention to sophomores anyway,” I told her. “I’ll be fine.”
“You want to go to college to play football?”
“No, but it’ll help me get a scholarship to a good university,” I remarked.
“Oh, I see.” Gwen nodded. “Do you mind if I walk home with you?”
“No, not at all,” I grinned. She turned away and looked down. “What’s wrong?” I could tell something was wrong.
“Nothing is wrong,” Gwen assured me.
Recalling how I’d answered the same question from Mrs. Smithe, I raised an eyebrow at her, skeptically. “Oh, come on, you can’t expect me to believe that.”
“Well…” Gwen sighed. “I should’ve known you would know. It’s Tim.”
“Is that loser annoying you?” I demanded to know. “I’ll get him beat up for you, if he’s been bugging you.”
“No, it’s not that,” she said. “Please don’t bother him. He’s just… well, I don’t think you should know. I like him and everything, you know. But I’m wondering… well, we’re just going through a rough spot, I guess.”
“But you’re happy, right?”
She looked over at me and smiled. “Hammy, you’re so silly,” she giggled.
“What do you mean?” I asked, more a little irritated. I hated it when people laughed at me when I was being nice (It’s one of the reasons it didn’t happen a lot.)
She grinned. “I’m sorry for laughing,” she apologized. “But you can’t expect me to believe happiness is the most important thing, right?”
“It’s a big part of it,” I reminded her.
“I know. But it’s not the most important part in any relationship. It might be a benefit, but love isn’t always happy. If I leave someone every time I’m unhappy with them, well, we wouldn’t be friends right now,” she told me.
I said nothing as we continued to walk towards Gwen’s house in silence. That’s what she thinks? Boy, she was… definitely out there.
My own personal peace and happiness, I decided, were key in my relationships. And that was more than perfectly reasonable to me. Why would I even consider dating someone if she wasn’t going to make me happy every day and every hour of my life? I rolled my eyes off to the side. “So you still like Tim, then?”
“Well, you should try to be considerate of other people’s feelings.”
Again, I said nothing. It’s too easy to reply to that and get hit.
“Whew,” Gwen muttered. “It sure is hot out this week.” Probably just changing the subject to get rid of the awkward silence.
“I know,” I agreed. The heat waves were coming off the road and some of the buildings, even off in the distance. “I would’ve thought it would have been a lot cooler. Even with the lake effect, we’re not supposed to be getting ninety degree weather in November.”
“I hope this doesn’t ruin the game for you,” Gwen remarked thoughtfully. “Our school sure is having bad luck with weather this year.”
Yeah, we sure were… I suddenly wondered if this sudden and odd change in weather had anything to do with those people Elysian had been talking about, those Seven Deadly Sinisters or the Saadonrasha or whatever they were called.
After all, that smurf-lady was responsible for conjuring up the week-long rainstorm last week, apparently. And I did have that dream – which I guess was not really a dream – where she was sent back out to collect more souls. Who’s to say she wouldn’t try to suck the souls out of people by making them weak with sunstroke?
She didn’t seem active enough to be very creative.
“I mean, games were canceled because of meteors, the rainstorm last week, and now this blistering heat… it doesn’t make sense. It’s not natural.”
Maybe it’s supernatural, I thought with a smirk on my face. Then I shook my head, scolding myself. Thinking everything unusual was not a coincidence but some strange mythological creature at work was going to drive me nuts. And I already thought I was insane enough.
Gwen giggled, drawing my attention back to her. “You know,” she said, “I think my arm’s been doing a lot better today. After I got home from the ACHE meeting, it was perfectly fine. My dad called the hospital. He’s wondering if they switched x-rays or something.”
I looked closely at her arm, surprised to see a faint glow coming from it. That glow…
Ugh, I am never going to get away from this! I screamed in my head.
I’ve seen that faint glow before, on the wrist of the girl in my dream. I glanced at my own marked wrist, which was carefully concealed by my football wristband. There’s nothing there, but I was not convinced everything was fine.
All of a sudden I’m afraid for Gwen. She was selected by that Maia Sinister before. Maia might’ve come back for her revenge already. I scrutinized her closely, relieved to see Gwen still looked like herself. Just a bit sweatier than usual, but still chipper and still herself.
“I hope it’s better,” I said neutrally. No need to get her freaking out and thinking I was as insane as I suspected. It wasn’t a lot of girls that went for that ‘insane guy’ profile when looking for a date. “I can’t imagine it’s fun wearing that bandage in this heat.”
Gwen nodded wryly. “Another reason I want to get it off.”
I glanced down at my wrist again, slightly nervous. I’d told no one about the mark on my wrist; thankfully, it’s small enough to hide with my armband. I told my friends and parents this week I was wearing it for good luck, but that was the worst of it so far.
And since I did want a perfect game tonight, I’d foolishly hoped my armband would grant me my wish.
But now the cursed mark underneath tainted any chance I had at happiness. The black star trickled with heat as I walked with Gwen, as if my suspicions were being confirmed.
17
Complications
“Are you home, Ham?” Mark called out, tearing at the fabric of my concentration.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I called out from my room. “What do you need?”
“I have bad news,” Mark said he walked to the door of my room. “Mrs. Weatherby was just admitted to the hospital. She’s got that new sickness, supposedly… and it doesn’t look good.”
“Who…Oh, Ms. Weatherby? Should I care?”
“She’s only been Adam’s nanny since he was two,” Mark’s eyebrow cocked up as he folded his arms and looked disappointedly at me.
Mark had this idea that just because I didn’t care much about my brother’s life or the other people in it, I didn’t have the proper ‘familial spirit.’
“Oh, I thought she was Adam’s daycare teacher.” I flopped down on my armchair. “Why’s that a problem?”
“Well, I just got beeped. Mrs. Ellsworth had a relapse and needs critical emergency surgery on her heart, and I’ve been stuck with Adam since I got home this morning. I
need you to watch him until your mother gets home.”
“Ah, come on! I don’t want to watch Adam!” I complained. “He’s barely three years old; he’s not that exciting.”
My father frowned. “Look, Hamilton, I’m very tired, and you’re probably right, Adam’s not exciting for you. But he is your brother, and I need to go to work. I’ll make it up to you later, all right?” With that, Mark grabbed his keys and headed for the door.
“Thanks a bunch, Mark!” I complained again, before letting out a stream of curses and death wishes.
A loud roaring noise followed by a child’s shriek cried out seconds later. I groaned. I’d just gotten comfortable! “Elysian!” I yelled. “What did you do to my brother!?”
The tiny dragon huffed, smoke streaming out of his nostrils in annoyance, as he poked his head out between the stair railings. A long white bandage was wrapped around his lower body, and a couple of Band-Aids were stuck to his forehead and horns. “That kid is not afraid of me!”
“So? You want a medal or something?”
Elysian shook his head. “No, I want him to stop trying to play doctor with me!”
I looked up to see Adam, not crying or screaming, wearing his play-doctor costume with a stethoscope hanging around his neck.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. So I finally had an idea of what to do with Elysian if he got on my nerves too much. “You mean you can’t put up playing doctor? Why don’t you just pretend you’re a stuffed animal or something? He’d never know the difference. Grow up.”
“You’re one to talk,” Elysian frowned. “Who was it again cursing and grumbling about having to baby-sit?”
I ignored that comment. “Can’t you do something about that, by the way?”
“What do you mean? You’re the one in charge of this kid,” he replied.
“Well, you are a supernatural creature, from what you’ve been telling me. Can’t you just put him under a spell or something?”
Elysian narrowed his eyes threateningly at me as he kicked off the last of the play bandages. “You’re mocking me, and I don’t appreciate it, especially since you’re the one who’s been neglecting your duty to protect the world.”
“Can’t you put him to sleep?” I asked/whined. “I don’t think it would hurt. Heck, with his crying, I think it would help the world.”
“No! There are little things called ‘rules,’ you know,” Elysian said. “I can’t break them because you don’t want to be responsible.”
“There’s rules? That stinks,” I muttered. “What is the point of having power if you had to follow rules?”
“Are you even listening to me?” Elysian asked.
“Not really.”
“I figured as much.”
A few hours later, it was getting close to kick-off time. With little less than an hour to get to the school, I was starting to go crazy. Not spooky-dooky crazy, just caged-lion crazy. “What in the world is Cheryl doing?” I muttered as I once again dialed her cell phone number. When it went straight to voicemail, I nearly chucked my phone at the wall.
“What’s wrong?” Elysian asked. “You should be happy. After all, your brother’s been asleep for nearly an hour.”
“Just how dense are you?” I asked. “There’s a game in…” My gaze went to the nearby clock hanging on the wall. “Only forty-five minutes or less!”
Elysian waved it off. “It’s too hot out to play, anyway.”
“Football players are tougher than that!”
“Sheesh, calm down, would you?” Elysian muttered. “What’s the problem?”
I glared at him murderously. “I can’t leave Adam here with no one in the house – no human, anyway,” I added as an afterthought. “Cheryl’s apparently dilly-dallying around with Mr. Boss or Mrs. Booze at the moment and can’t seem to remember this game is imperative!”
“For you, maybe,” Elysian sighed, “Anyway, why don’t you just call Adam a babysitter?”
“I can’t do that! Mark and Cheryl would kill me for throwing him with just any babysitter.”
“Can you take him with you?”
“And what? Let him roam the stadium by himself? I can’t do that – what if I have to go get him in the middle of the game? I’ll be benched for sure.”
“You really are the most self-obsessed person I’ve ever met,” Elysian grumbled.
“I am not,” I retorted. “I’m thinking of everyone else. Everyone’s counting on me. Imagine how all my fans would feel if I didn’t come!”
Elysian rolled his eyes. “There’s always next year,” he grumbled. “Besides, it might not be a bad thing you’re stuck here. Remember the last time you were at a football game? If you had any common sense, you might be worried about what could happen tonight.”
I stilled for a moment, remembering the people who had been just blankly staring off into space. I thought about the half-daydream I had while I was working on my homework in my room; Maia had been plotting something. But she didn’t seem too eager to work.
“I don’t think it will happen tonight,” I said. “I didn’t have a premonition about it that took place at the arena like last time.”
“You mean you can see them coming? You have been given visions?”
“Sometimes, I guess.” I glared at him.
“Kid, that’s extraordinary. You haven’t accepted any duties or conditions to your intended role, but the Prince is giving you power and letting you see glimpses of other portions of time. This means,” Elysian said with wide eyes, “you have maintained the promise of free will.”
I snorted. “That’s absurd. He’d have to be outside space and time for him to be able to control everything that happens to me.”
When Elysian just looked at me with an expression on his face, I rolled my eyes. Of course this Prince guy was all powerful. Elysian needed something big to tie his little stories all together.
“But you don’t always see them coming, even with the visions, right? So it could still happen.”
“Well, that’s great to know. Anything could be a trap, in that case. Sounds like you’re just paranoid,” I remarked. I didn’t want to talk about it.
Elysian tilted his head to the side. “How long has your back been hurting?”
“Since last Thursday, probably because I was hurled into a school window. And into a tree,” I reminded him. Elysian was studying my face and starting to smile. “So before you go and get any ideas about it, you can forget them. I’m a normal, sixteen-year-old student at Central High. Nothing more – unless you count my awesome skills and sports ability – and nothing less.”
“We’ll see… we’ll see,” Elysian muttered. “You know, there’s a way you can tell if there’s something going on. If you look at the mark under your wrist, you should be able to tell.”
“What do you mean?” Remembering the incident with Gwen’s arm, I froze.
My cell phone rang, making me jump. “Hello, Cheryl?” I asked (For once, I desperately wanted my mother to be the one calling me.)
“No, it’s Gwen.” The voice on the other side of the phone line sounded amused. “I was calling to tell you my arm is better –”
“Gwen!” I interrupted her as a brilliant idea skid lightning across my brain. “Gwen, you babysit kids, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Why?”
“Can you meet with me in twenty-five minutes?”
“Yes. Why? What do you want?”
“I need you to do a huge favor for me,” I grinned, glancing up the stairs with a bright gleam in my eye. “Call it your way of thanking me for saving your life.”
18
Assaulted
I seriously doubted I had ever run faster in my life as I headed towards the school. With my little brother clinging to my shoulders, I sped up as I caught sight of Gwen. We’d agreed to meet in Shoreside Park, where she would take Adam off my hands for the duration of the game, and I’d get to walk to the game with her (It’s an unofficial way for football players to announce they
had a date.)
“Gwen!” Her auburn hair was shining in the over-heated sun as I waved. But then I faltered.
Someone was with her. And that someone was none other than Tim Ryder.
Well, this should be interesting, I thought.
I knew I didn’t have long, so I’d better hurry Tim along. I jogged over even more quickly, and a moment later I was close enough to where I could hear their conversation.
“You’ve been avoiding me all week,” Tim was saying.
I slowed as I groaned. What a baby. Can’t be away from his stairway to popularity a week without feeling neglected. Doesn’t he know fame is fickle?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gwen told him.
Tim touched her arm. “Are you mad at me?” he asked. “Did I do something to make you upset? If you tell me, I’ll be able to straighten it out.”
Ha! He couldn’t straighten out a ruler, I thought.
“I just… well, I’ve been a little confused lately. And I don’t think my dad likes you, to be perfectly honest.” (That was a gracious understatement. After Gwen and her parents had all arrived at home from the hospital, her dad had complained that his daughter liked a wimpy ballet boy, while she had the high school football champ saving her life, and they liked me much better as a potential boyfriend. Gwen told Laura this to Samantha who told some other girls who told Mikey who told me.)
Tim smiled weakly, still looking down. “Oh, I see,” he remarked. “You like Dinger.”
Heck yeah she does. Loser.
“I used to like him a lot,” Gwen (finally!) admitted. “I had a crush on him when I was on the cheerleading squad. Don’t look at me like that, Tim! It’s practically a rite of passage for a cheerleader! And he did save my life. Twice.”
“So… you want to date him?”
I stopped briefly to catch my breath – I didn’t want to look weak in front of Gwen or Tim now. I could’ve really used a hero’s entrance.
“I don’t know. There’s a part of me that says Ham’s too much of a ham, if you know what I mean. But I don’t want to be in a relationship where you leave me when there’s trouble.”
The Starlight Chronicles: Slumbering Page 17
